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Book Review
| Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters. By Robert Jerome Glennon. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002. x + 314 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. Cloth $25.00.
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| Summarizing the status of groundwater in the United States challenges any writer: legal, social, and environmental conflicts abound. Claiming to present the only work on national groundwater, Glennon offers a lively set of essays centered on selected "water-rich" and "water-poor" areas of the nation. In so doing, he restates basic tenets of water historiography: water law and hydrology contradict one another in most instances; groundwater pumping causes declining water tables, mining of aquifers, subsidence, and degradation of surface waters; readily available technology changes how, and how often, people utilize groundwater; individual consumer choices result in collective environmental effects; and water follows money (even uphill). Water Follies provides the uninitiated with basic information about groundwater challenges in the United States in an engaging, fireside manner, and it includes some interesting "hooks" for linking water history to current events and everyday life. |
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Each chapter of Water Follies investigates an intersection between groundwater and a surface watercourse, often pivoting on individual choices to enjoy a retirement lifestyle, cheap electricity, premier birding, tourism, or to consume salmon, oysters, blueberries or perfect french fries. In telling these stories, Glennon provides glimpses into the tangle of agricultural, commercial, and metropolitan uses of water, the contradictory popular values of groundwater users, and the politics of economic growth, well regulation, and conservation. The underlying theme remains that the super-sizing American lifestyle affects the physical environment, particularly groundwater, for the long term in both expected (Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas) and unexpected places (Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Florida). The work contrasts expert and local opinions, acknowledges the common practice of pitting scientific reports and hydrologic models against one another, and points out the difficulties in balancing "beneficial uses," traditions, and social expectations with law, politics, and consumerism. |
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In his conclusion, Glennon calls for patience and care in addressing the conflicts presented. He links current events to biologist Garrett Hardin's "tragedy of the commons," and suggests eight means of reform to "prevent further degradation" (p. 217). He hopes to inspire readers not only to consider action as citizens, but also to examine individual consumer choices which collectively affect the hydrologic cycle in places far from the point of purchase. He provides contact information for a variety of activist organizations working to resolve problems associated with the springs, rivers, lakes, and estuaries in jeopardy. |
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Glennon's prose sparkles and can be understood easily by the general reader. He deftly weaves vocabulary and legal or hydrologic explanations into each tale, and provides a glossary. Water Follies utilizes illustrations to great effect; most underscore the tales told, particularly when "before" and "after" photographs appear together. This work will well serve the general public attempting to understand and place local situations in context, and could be used as a primer for environmental history students who seek only a taste of groundwater issues nationwide. However, the more water-steeped will find this work less meaty; while some standard works in the field are referenced in the endnotes, water historiography is not addressed directly. The emphasis of the work is on bringing groundwater into the visible spectrum for readers, not examining issues beyond case-study basics which support the themes of Water Follies. |
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Laura A. Wimberley currently coordinates a freshman learning community program at Texas A&M University. Her research interests include the Edwards Aquifer and groundwater in Texas. |
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